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Wednesday, February 18, 2015

Lent 2015

I've written here before about holy envy and some of the spiritual practices of other faiths that I've learned from including Ramadan and Lent. There is so much value in getting out of whatever rut you're in and seeing things through new eyes. I love the idea of spiritually preparing for Easter, of both giving something up and adding something to our lives to draw us closer to the Savior, and I'm gratified that quite a few Mormonsseem to becoming around to this idea more.

In thinking about what I need this year to help me "fall deeper in love with Christ", I've decided that I need more space and less clutter - physically, emotionally, mentally, spiritually. There's so many different directions that could go, but I'm going to try to keep it simple, giving up something and adding something.

So I'm giving up "stuff".

I'm doing the 40 bags in 40 days challenge, which isn't as rigid as the name suggests, to declutter our home. I'll get rid of things we no longer need, hopefully donating them to others for whom they could be useful, but getting them out of our house one way or another. And I won't be buying things that aren't necessities - food, toiletries, etc. Of course, what one person considers a necessity, another person may consider frivolous, so there's some leeway there, but I'll be focusing on keeping any purchases I make simple and necessary.

And I'm adding "peace".

"Adding peace" would probably look different for every single person, but my "adding peace" is going to include 20-30 minutes of meditation and yoga in the mornings. I'll also be minimizing my time on the internet, limiting non-communication, non-banking, non-necessary stuff to 30 minutes a day.

1 comment:

My seminary class is observing Lent this year as kind of a class project. We had a Catholic priest come in and talk about Catholic traditions on Tuesday (Mardi Gras) which was really interesting. I'm giving up sugar and convenience food in order to have something to share with them. But I'm also doing what you're doing and meditating every day. I found an app I like (there's an app for everything!) called Insight Timer which helps me track meditations and has several guided meditations. I know tracking meditations kind of goes against the whole spirit of the thing, but I've found it quite helpful.